P3P: The Answer
by DustTilDawn
Summary: Koromaru has inherited the power of the Fool. One month after Minako Arisato dies, the crew are told to move out of the dorm. With nothing but doubts, the crew are thrown into a labyrinth. There, they meet a shadow that looks exactly like their lost loved one. Can they save her? At what cost? [The Answer told if FeMC was the Great Seal]


March 31st 2010 1:30PM Koromaru

Fuuka, Ken, Junpei, Mitsuru, Shinjiro, and I were sitting in the living room of the dorm. Today was it. Graduation had passed and the semester was over. Without the Dark Hour, the dorm was closing down. There wouldn't need to be a reason for SEEs anymore. Where were Yukari and Akihiko? They should've been here too. Maybe they were too sad. Too much had changed.

Junpei counted the Evokers sitting on the table before us. It was time to put them away. I would miss mine. It hurt, calling my Persona. But I was happy with them here. I was happy when Shinjiro made me dinners, and when Akihiko or Ken took me for walks. I was happy when **she** 'd rub my head, smiling down at me. All of that was over now.

"We're missing one." Junpei had changed after Chidori died. He was turning into an adult. He used to be a joker, always trying to make people laugh and making the girls annoyed, but now. Now, he was almost like a leader.

"Here." Aigis walked over to the table, placing **her** Evoker onto it. That was the last one. The end of the journey. Everyone looked down. The sadness was almost visible.

"Hey. Don't get all gloomy. She wouldn't have wanted that. She loved to smile. Remember?" Junpei had a smile plastered on his face, but I couldn't help it. I didn't want to be sad, but it was too soon. The wound was still fresh. **She** was gone. Like the priest. Mitsuru and Akihiko were going to Tokyo. Ken would go to middle school. Yukari, Fuuka and Junpei would still be in Gekkoukan High, but they would graduate soon too. Then, everyone would be gone. They were all leaving me.

"I'm sorry. You're right." Fuuka's eyes were red. "We all said our goodbyes."

Ken sighed. "Why did it happen? She was fine. I talked to her for weeks after the fight and she seemed fine. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her either. It was like-"

"Ken, stop." Shinjiro put a hand on his shoulder. We'd been through the scenarios again and again. None of it mattered. **She** never woke up. "Stop...I know you're hurting. But...we need to stop." The younger boy dropped his eyes to the ground. He knew Shinjiro was right.

Aigis crouched down so she could talk to Ken at eye level. He'd grown a bit taller but he was still just a child. "It will be okay. We must all find our way in life. That's what she would want. You should come visit me at the lab. It will be fun."

"The lab?" Junpei looked confused. "Why are you going back there?"

"Aigis won't be enrolled next year. She's... no longer necessary in the operations so we're not sure what her next mission will be." Mitsuru looked uncomfortable as she answered.

Everyone looked surprised at the development, but Aigis hurriedly reassured them. It wasn't a time to be sad. There wasn't much time left. This would be our last day. We should be together happily. I rubbed my head against Aigis's leg. She smiled at me. "I'll miss you too, Koromaru."

Mitsuru had ordered Sushi, the good stuff like when we beat that big shadow on Moonlight Bridge. They even gave me some so we could eat in the lounge while we watched TV. It was amazing, but it was bittersweet. This would be the last meal I would have with them before they all left.

The TV beeped alerting us that it was midnight.

Nothing happened at first, but then my body seemed to shift. It was uncomfortable, but it also brought a sense of menace. I'd felt this before, a hundred times. Danger. The Dark Hour. Everyone else seemed to have the same thought. Junpei ran to the window, checking the setting outside, but everything looked fine. What was happening?

"Aigis, what are you doing?!" Everyone turned to the girl. Something in her had changed. The life seeped from her eyes, returning her to the robot she had been when she'd first joined us at the dorm. She charged, attacking the others indiscriminately. Mitsuru and Junpei were the first ones to go down. Shinjiro tried tackling the girl but she was stronger. He was still weak after the long hospital stay.

"Ken! Look out!" The blow knocked him back, breaking the table and several other pieces of furniture. The room was in shambles. I smelled blood. Ken was bleeding from a wound in his head and back. She was going to kill him. I charged, bitin deeply into her hand. I could feel the crunching of metal beneath my jaws. "Koromaru! Aigis!"

She flung me far away and my back hit the wall. She was trying to kill us all. No. I couldn't let that happen. I would protect everyone.

"Arrroooooo!" I growled, the familiar feeling of a Persona rose in me.

"No way..."

"Is that..."

"Orpheus?!"

Aigis stopped moving. Her face was still blank. I charged again, tackling her to the ground, my jaws wrapped around her throat. My vision faded to black.

When I awoke, I was looking at a strange man with a large nose. We were in a room shaped like an elevator. The only thing in the room was a table. There were three walls that seemed to be covered in different kinds of door leading to who knows where. A fourth wall was made entirely of bars. There was some sort of view behind it but we were going so quickly, I couldn't see what it looked like. The view told me we were going up. The strange man sat between me and the wall of bars, a wall clock seemed to hang in midair above him. The sole hand seemed to spin endlessly.

"Ahh, it appears you have awakened." He spoke to me without any hesitation, as if he knew I could understand. "A rare guest, indeed. You're an animal but you seem perfectly capable of understanding human speech. Well, where are my manners. I'm Igor, and this is my assistant, Elizabeth."

I whimpered in reply.

"Well Koromaru, this room exists between mind and reality. It only exists for those who hold the power of the wild card."

 _Orpheus?_

"That is correct. You've had a friend here recently who held the same ability. She reached the answer to the meaning of life and achieved a miracle. Do you want to follow her on this Journey?"

 _If I reach her, can I bring her back?_

"The only thing I can tell you is that bonds, if they are strong enough will open every door. The doors and your bonds will take you where you need to go."

Could I trust this strange man? What was there to lose? I thought about my friends: Ken, Shinjiro, Junpei, Akihiko, Fuuka, Mitsuru, Yukari and even Aigis. If everyone was with me, we could do it. I believed in them. I believed in **her**. _What do I need to do?_

The assistant, Eilzabeth, put a piece of paper and an ink pad on the floor. "Sign here. Your paw print will do."

I hesitated for a moment before I pressed my paw first to the ink pad, and then to the piece of paper. The strange man named Igor clapped once when I was done, clearly delighted with the result."Excellent. I shouldn't keep you. Now, it's time for you to go."

 _Go where?_

My eyelids began to droop. I was falling asleep again, back into a deep slumber that I couldn't be sure was real. Had the whole thing been a dream? When my eyes opened again, everyone was looking at me with concern. "Guys! He's awake!" Junpei called everyone over, each one waiting for their turn to hold me.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Aigis was now back to normal. Her eyes the same way they were before the attack, full awareness. I tried to get my bearings together but there was something wrong. The room was completely different. Akihiko and Yukari had arrived, standing on opposite ends of the large space, glaring at each other. A large hole had opened in the floor between them, close to where the lounge had been. There was a stairwell in the hole, leading down into darkness.

"Aigis, what happened?" Akihiko spoke first, his arms crossed. He hadn't been the same after **she** died. He avoided everyone, even Shinjiro. All he did was box in the gym. Every time Shinjiro had gone to see him, he would return covered in bruises.

"Time...has stopped." She seemed to be looking at the hole in the floor as she spoke. "We can't leave. This dorm has been cut off from the rest of the world."

"She's not lying." Yukari finally added. "I showed up after Mitsuru called, but when I tried to leave, there seemed like there was an invisible glass wall blocking the exit."

"But why?" Junpei's question echoed through all of our minds.

"I don't know...But the hole, it's calling to me. I believe that all the answers lie there." Aigis was staring into the distance, as if she spoke to everyone and no one.

"We might as well check it out. It's not like it's going anywhere." Akihiko led the way but none of us moved.

Shinjiro was by the kitchen. He stepped forward. "Before we do anything, we should get supplies. Food, water, our Evokers. We might be in danger. If we're going down there, the least we could do is prepare ourselves." He was right. Everyone started packing a bag. I grabbed my guard pouch, throwing supplies into it. Shinjiro put my pouch and collar around my neck. The feeling was familiar. It made me sad, but it also called back all of our memories together. I'd missed it.

There wasn't any point lounging around. If we weren't able to leave, it might be best to look into the one strange thing that had appeared and probably caused the time distortion. What we found was a desert that seemed endless. Several intricate doors stood before us. Each one looked slightly different, with a different pattern and emblem carved into the wood. A girl stood in front of the door directly in the middle of all the others. All of her features were instantly recognizable. She smiled, briefly, but then in the next instant, she was gone, disappearing into the door behind her.

"Was that...Was that who I thought it was?" Akihiko looked stunned.

I whimpered.

"No...It can't be." Ken looked equally as surprised.

Shinjiro and Junpei were speechless. Yukari stared at the others, her displeasure had reached a breaking point. "Are you serious? Just say her name. It won't kill you. I'm sick of watching all of you try and live in the past. It's fine if it's just you, but you're trying to drag us into doing the same thing! She's gone! Let her die!"

"Yukari!" Mitsuru put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head. There would be no point to this conversation. It would only tear them apart. "She was really important to them. Just let them do what they want."

"But-" Mitsuru squeezed harder. Yukari winced, but lapsed into silence.

The group traveled mostly in silence. We had fought together so often, but it had never been like this. Even when we were exploring Tartarus, there was a lot of laughing and joking around. Everyone would talk. So many things were different now.

We traveled through several floors, fighting Shadows along the way. Everything felt familiar but strange at the same time. Fuuka followed the ghost we had seen, trying to reach her. I scouted ahead every so often since I had the best nose, but we couldn't catch her. It felt like we were getting just close enough every time, but none of it mattered. She always escaped.

Finally, somewhere around the 10th floor, we found a door that stood out. There was no other path to take. It resembled the one we'd seen in the desert. Bracing ourselves, we opened the door.

* * *

Inside, we saw Ken, a little younger than he was now, sitting inside a police station. A few officers were talking about what was a collapsed house. Ken sat eerily quiet behind them, his expression blank.

"My mom was murdered." Those were the first words he spoke.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" The officer's face displayed nothing but suspicion.

"There was a teenager, holding his head. A monster appeared right out of him. It roared and my mom and my house-" The younger Ken sounded frantic.

"I know that's what you think but sometimes, traumatic things happen and we make up memories to deal with the pain. We've already found the guy that rammed into your house. What's left of him anyway. I know it's bad now, but it will get better. Try to understand." The police officer walked away, leaving a young Ken by himself.

"You said you'd believe me." His hands were balled into fists as he yelled at the policeman. "You're a liar and I don't need you. I'll find him myself."

The scene faded to white and we appeared back in the lounge. Everyone looked to Ken, but he was watching Shinjiro. "I spent months, looking for you. I thought up a million ways to find you, but I couldn't do any of it alone. I wanted special powers so desperately. I wanted to kill you."

There was no malice on Shinjiro's face. He sighed, holding the young boy's arms with both of his hands. "I'm sorry."

Ken shook his head. "It's okay. You've long made up for it." He reached around the older man's waist, the two clinging to one another like brothers. The shame and guilt washing off them at long last. It was a long time coming.

Akihiko seemed furious. He turned on Aigis. "What the hell was that all about?!"

Everyone turned to look at her. "I think we see what we want to. What we have buried deep in our hearts. Shinjiro has always wanted to know what happened to Ken after the accident, and it's given them a proper chance to reconcile."

"So we can see what we want?" Shinjiro seemed to have something particular in mind.

"Memories, I think. Only the past."

"I want to see **her**." Akihiko pushed passed the others back into the desert. I sped up to keep even with him. Floor after floor, we ran after him. The shadows kept coming, but he seemed to be able to fight them back on his own.

Finally, we reached another door like the one we had seen before. Akihiko seemed to hesitate for only a second before he opened it. The scene lightened up to a high school hallway. A younger Ahihiko and Shinjiro walked down the hall, chased by several fans and what looked to be a boxing agent.

"I've never seen a kid box like that before! How about coming to our school? I can get you a full tuition? You thinking about transferring?"

Akihiko turned to look at the agent, completely unimpressed. "I don't see a reason to go to a school that only places second."

He turned around quickly, ignoring the cheers and sometimes insults thrown at him before the pair ran into another familiar face. A younger Mitsuru walked up to them, her face completely stern. "Shinjiro Aragaki. Class C. Delinquent. Akihiko Sanada. Class C. The star of the boxing team."

Akihiko sighed, staring her down. "What do you want?

"I want the two of you to fight monsters. Neither of you will be restrained by the rules of society. You've seen them haven't you, the monsters that appear at midnight."

For the first time in the conversation, the boys' faces were lit with interest. "Who are you?"

"Mitsuru Kirijo. I can make both of you stronger." She pulled out two Evokers from her bag. "And with this, you can challenge them."

The scene once again faded to white, and we were returned to the lounge.

Everyone turned to Akihiko and Shinjiro now. The first man was seething at Aigis. "What the hell was that? First Ken and now this?! You said I could see her!"

"Aki, shut up. You're acting like a kid."

"Piss off Shinji. You don't understand."

"Yes I do. I loved **her** just as much as you did."

Everyone was silent. We'd all known. We all saw it, the way **she** had been. The boys loved her. I loved her. It was impossible not to, but none of them said it out loud. Especially now that she was gone. It hurt too much for all of them. I whimpered in my best attempts to get them to stop fighting. Akihiko looked at me and sighed. He was worn out. This whole thing was affecting him too deeply. It would be best for all of us to keep moving. Maybe at the end of all this, their pain would end.

Junpei was next. Then Mitsuru, Yukari and then finally, me.

I was standing in front of the shrine with a little girl. It was the Dark Hour and she was lost. Crying too. Shadows came from every direction. They were going to destroy my master's shrine. I had to stop them. I couldn't let them take him away. "Arrooo!" Cerberus, the guard dog of Hades. That's what I am. I will always protect this place and the people who come here.

My memory was the shortest, but when it was over, the others came to pet me on the head. Even Akihiko was smiling. He was proud. "That's when I found him. 5 Shadows, all knocked out by our very own Koromaru."

"Arf, arf." _It's what I do._

"That's right. All these memories. They give us the reason we became Persona-users. They each show the moment we found our reasons." Mitsuru was speaking to herself, but we had all figured it out too. Why were we being shown these particular memories. Sure, they were special to us, but why did it matter in this place? Why had time stopped? That was the last of the doors, but we hadn't been teleported back to the lounge. Why?

The ground unexpectedly started shaking. Another door had appeared in front of us, and it was open. But we couldn't see past it. The entrance was covered in darkness. None of us moved, but we didn't need to. Someone was coming out. She held her naginata in her hands, her Evoker strapped to her hip. Everything about her looked the same, except for one thing. Her eyes, which were once red like a burning candle were now yellow, tinged with madness.

Shinjiro collapsed to his knees. Akihiko seemed frozen for a moment before he rushed forward. Mitsuru grabbed him around the waist, holding him back. "Get off! Let me go!"

"STOP! Akihiko...Stop...That's...not...her!"

But, he no longer needed to be held back. The girl held her Evoker to her head and fired. Caesar.

"Caesar?! How?!" Yukari panicked. She fired her first arrow, and the battle had begun. **She** could use all of our personas, all of our attacks. Even though it was one of her versus eight of us, we were losing.

 _Remember the bonds that you once shared._

I could hear the strange man, Igor, whisper in my ear. I needed to protect them. I was the only one who could save them.

"Arooo!" I called my persona, no longer was it Cerberus.

 _Orpheus Telos!_

"Arooo!"

 _Black Viper!_

"She's weak to almighty damage!" I could hear Fuuka giving everyone new orders. We changed our strategy, but the boys were still holding back. Akihiko, Ken, and Shinjiro couldn't seem to put their heart into it. Yukari pushed them back before attacking the girl in front of us. Finally, after what seemed like hours, she was starting to weaken. The boys were also gathering what was left of their strength, their resolve. She looked at us, smiling in a way we had never seen her do in life, and fired her Evoker. Instead of calling her one of her Personas, she vanished into a cloud of red butterflies.

"No!" Akihiko rushed forward, but they were already gone. "No..." He collapsed on the floor in a heap.

Yukari ran up to him, pulling him to his feet by the vest. "Are you crazy?! You almost cost us our lives. She could've killed us all."

Akihiko didn't respond, and Yukari reared back to slap him. Shinjiro grabbed her wrist. "We're sorry. It won't happen again."

But her rage hadn't subsided. "You have no right to stop me. You were just as useless as him in that last battle. Will all of you just wake up? **She's** dead. **_Minako_** is dead and all of you clinging to her memory is clearly the reason we're all trapped in here. You need to move on. People are worried about you and all you're willing to do is wallow in your own self-pity. That thing was a shadow that could use all of our Personas! She was made from us! From you!"

They flinched at the sound of her name, but no one refuted Yukari's claims. We all knew it was true.

The girl sighed but let go of Akihiko's vest "Whatever. We won. Does that mean it's over?"

"No." A new voice had joined the group. He was dressed like the assistant, Elizabeth, in the Velvet Room. He held a book in his hands.

"Who the hell are you?" Yukari's rage returned in full force. "What do you mean it's not over?"

"My name is Theodore. The Shadow you just defeated is a manifestation of the pain that you all feel. None of you were prepared to let her go but defeating it is proof that you have the ability to move on, and you can. If you look in your pockets, you will see a key. One for each of you. When all nine keys are combined, you will receive the true key. That key will allow you to leave. You'll go to the morning of April 1st if you so choose it."

Yukari smiled. "Well, that's great. Why wouldn't we do that?"

"Because you can also choose to go back to that day in January before the final battle. You can choose to relive it."

"Are you saying we can change the past?!" Akihiko yelled.

The man, Theodore, nodded.

None of us spoke. We could change the past. Did that mean we could save her?

I barked. Why _are you telling us all this?_

Theodore looked at me, his eyes slightly confused. "I...knew her as well. Minako Arisato... was a wonderful guest. She...visited me many times, and in our visits I fell in love with her. She chose to become the Great Seal to save you all. To save the world. I was searching for a way to save her from this fate, when all of you appeared."

"You too huh? Is there any guy around, who didn't fall for her?" Ken and Shinjiro seemed to blush. Junpei looked like he wanted to raise his hand, but he put it behind his head, jokingly. Akihiko sighed. "Let's go back to the lounge. If we stay here, who knows what might come out and attack us again."

* * *

Fights broke up almost immediately.

"We can save her! Goddamnit. It's not about bringing her back. If we can save her, that would've made her death meaningless." Akihiko.

"Don't be stupid. Do you remember how we fought that day?! We lost. All of us, would've died. Nothing would have changed. Going back only makes her sacrifice, pointless." Yukari. "If you ever loved her, you would understand what she did for you. For all of us."

They were the loudest of our group, and the ones who spoke the most. The rest of us mostly watched. Our opinions were more or less made up, but there was no point in getting between the two. They looked ready to tear each other apart. The two of them pulled out their weapons, pointing them at each other. Everyone in the room flinched.

Ken stood up and the pair turned to look at him. "I made a promise to protect **her,** " His one sentence seemed to shift the momentum in the room. His eyes were set. "I agree with Sanada-san. If there is a way we can go back, and save her, then I'm taking it."

Shinjiro said nothing, only moving in to join Ken and Akihiko's side of the room. Their opinions were made clear. Akihiko smirked at Yukari.

Mitsuru stood up to move. "Yukari was there for me last year, when I needed someone to lean on. She taught me that we needed to move on, to live in the present. She taught me that moving on didn't mean we forgot our pain. Letting go is another way to honor her memory. I stand with Yukari."

"Nyx can not be destroyed. Minako did what she did for us. I don't want to waste her sacrifice." Aigis moved to join the other girls. She'd also made her choice.

The only ones left were Junpei, Fuuka and me. None of us moved. "So what do we do now?" Junpei asked.

Shinjiro sighed. "We're not going to agree. No amount of talking will work. I say we fight it out. Isn't that what we've always done? Winning side, gets the keys."

I whimpered.

Theodore looked down at me before translating. "The dog says that he will not pick a side."

"I agree. If you guys want to fight it out, that's fine. Go ahead, but I won't. I'm neutral in all this. Minako was my best friend. If we can save her, we should, but I don't know if we can. Imagining going through that fight again scares the hell out of me. I'll admit that I'm a coward, but we lost that day. We'll probably lose if we try again. If that is the case, we should move on, so whatever you guys decide, that's what I'll do." Junpei answered. Fuuka nodded in agreement.

"Then it's settled. Let's do this." Yukari switched her bow for her Evoker. They wouldn't be using weapons in this fight. It was a battle of wills and Personas.

Theodore stepped between the two groups. "This way then. I'll take you to an area where you can settle this."

We were all led to an arena. The boys stood on one side and the girls stood on the other. Fuuka, Junpei and I stood with Theodore off to one side.

The battle began without another word. They all seemed to square off with one another. Yukari Vs. Akihiko. Mitsuru Vs. Shinjiro. Aigis Vs. Ken. Yukari was the first to fall, giving the boys an advantage. It didn't last long. Mitsuru knocked out Akihiko, without breaking a sweat. Aigis activated Orgia mode, sacrificing her own fighting capability to knock out Ken. Shinjiro stopped the young boy from pushing himself, leaving Shinjiro to face the ice queen on his own.

"Shinji..." The woman frowned. She had not expected to need to beat Shinji at the end. "Why are you on their side? You should know better than anyone that some things were meant to be."

He put his Evoker to his head, smiling at her sadly. "I was in the hospital that night. I didn't get to be with her in that moment. Even if we go back in time and I can't save her, I want to spend those last moments with her. I want to see her, just as much as Aki. If not more. She gave me everything."

"Are you saying..." Shock flowed through her. Mitsuru could only stare. The words and their meaning had not escaped her.

"Yeah. We did that. Can you believe she could love a man like me?" He smiled again, and Mitsuru realized that she hadn't seen him smile in years. She'd never even noticed, so caught up in her own pain. Her own life. "So I need to win, Mitsuru. I hope you understand."

He pulled the trigger, and what appeared wasn't Castor. "Gaius!"

The Persona looked very much like Caesar. In fact, they were nearly identical except Gaius was black, and his armor was that of chain mail. "God's Hand!"

Mitsuru couldn't dodge. She either didn't have the energy or maybe she just didn't want to. The girl was blasted backward, losing her Evoker. Theodore stepped forward between them. "We have a clear winner. The fight is over. Collect your prize." Ken and Akihiko ran forward, collecting the keys from the girls while the three of us neutral ones handed ours to Shinjiro. I rubbed my head against his hand. _Everything will be okay._

He gave me a hug. "Thanks pal."

When all the keys had been placed together, it transformed in Shinjiro's hand into a golden key, much larger than the originals. Theodore walked up to Shinjiro. "Before you make your choice, would all of you like to see her, as she is now?"

"We...we can do that?" Junpei whispered.

"Yes. I've been with her all this time. If you'll follow me."

Behind him, another door materialized. This one was much larger than all the others, red in its decorative patterns. The door opened to darkness, revealing nothing behind it. We stepped through, and what we saw left us all breathless.

It's like we were floating in space. There was nothing around us except stars. No walls, no floors, no ceiling. The only thing we could see for miles was a door, larger than anything we had ever seen. The door was golden, separated into eight different sections. On each psrt was an eye, looking in a different direction. But in front of the door was something that attracted our attention even more. **She,** Minako Arisato, was held a few feet in front, by lines of barbed wire coiling all over her.

Her entire body was made of stone.

"What's...going on? What happened?" Junpei asked the question we were all thinking, but Theodore only held a finger to his lips as if asking us to wait.

Then, as if from nowhere, our entire world seemed to shake despite the fact that we seemed to be floating in midair. A monster, larger than even the door slammed into Minako, consuming her whole body. It had no form, no shape. It seemed to be made entirely of smoke, shifting when any of us tried to focus on it. The world continued to shake, but nothing else seemed to happen. After a few minutes, everything stopped and the monster retreated. Disappearing back to the depths of wherever it had come from.

Theodore turned to the group, standing directly in front of the statue that was Minako."That monster was created last December. The hearts of man had given up on the world. They called for the Fall, and every night, at midnight, Erebus comes to deliver their wish. Minako is the Great Seal. She bars it from entering your world. The Fall will never come as long as she exists here in this space."

I walked up to her statue by myself, the others watching me speechlessly. She looked like she was crying. _Can we save her?_

"No. Nyx can not be defeated. To go back in time would be suicide." Shinjiro frowned behind me, staring at the key in his hand.

 _Then what can we do?_

"Can that guy understand Koromaru?" Yukaru's whisper floated through the open space, much louder than she probably originally anticipated.

"Nothing. As long as humanity calls for death, then death will come unless someone bars the way."

" _Can I take her place?"_

The man did not answer my question. He seemed to look at me strangely, in a whole new light. "Your original persona was Cerberus, the guard dog of Hades?"

I nodded, whimpering softly.

"How apt, that it would be you. Perhaps it should've been you from the beginning." Theodore sighed. He seemed to want to pet me, but his gloved hand hesitated an inch above my head. I nudged his leg softly, and he smiled. Blushing as he did so. "You'll be forgotten. Left here to guard humanity for eternity. Are you sure about this?"

I nodded again. _That's what we're for._

"Why do this for **her**? For humanity?"

I thought of the priest. He had taken me in as a puppy, abandoned by my mother and my family. He'd raised me in his withering years. As my fur got darker, his hair had gone white. I thought of Minako. She had taken me on walks, protected me from strangers. Protected the shrine when I couldn't. She'd looked at my wounds and healed them. I thought of Shinjiro, Junpei, and Ken. I thought of everyone at the dorm and how they had all loved me. _Because they are family, and we protect family._

Theodore nodded. "Is that your answer?" There was no need for me to respond. Theo could see the resolution in my eyes. "Then so be it."

"Wait, what's happening?" Yukari again.

No one answered her. Theodore lifted his hands into the air, and a new door appeared in front of me. I ran through it, without looking back. I recognized this new room. We were back in the strange elevator with Igor and Elizabeth. Theodore went to stand beside them. The two were clearly related. In front of them, lying on the table, was Minako. Her body was no longer made of stone.

I rushed to her side. She was cold. Her hand hung limply off the side of the table. I licked it slowly. It twitched in my hand. Once, then twice. Her hand moved to her head, and her eyes flew open. She sprang up so quickly I barely saw her move. "Where...where am I?"

I barked, and Minako turned to look at me, her eyes wide. "Koro...Koromaru?" Her eyes continued to swivel around the room, realization hitting her hard. "Are we in the Velvet Room...? Why are you here? What happened?!"

"Minako..." Theodore knelt down so he could touch her face. She jumped a little, reflexively, but didn't move away. "You chose death to protect your friends. Koromaru has made the same decision."

"What are you talking about...That can't..." She wrapped her arms around me, pulling half my body into her lap, protectively. "NO! You can't do that to him. He's just a dog!"

She was crying. I crawled up her body, licking the salty tears that ran down her face. _I can do it. I'm not just a dog._

"He says that he can be the hero if he wishes." Minako glared at the poor, unfortunate messenger.

"Shut up, Theo! I know you know everything but you don't understand. Koromaru can't do this. Koromaru...Koromaru is..." Her tears choked the words out of her, causing more mumbles than anything else.

 _I'm a good boy._

"He says he loves you too." I barked happily, my tail sweeping across her legs repeatedly. I liked it best when she hugged me.

"No! No... I won't let him! Take me back...Take me back!" She shoved her face into my fur. Her tears soaked into my coat.

"He's signed the contract. Yours expired last night." Theodore's expression seemed to wither at his helplessness to make her understand. "You're no longer a Persona user. You no longer have the ability to help him."

"I won't let you take him." Her eyes were fierce despite the red puffiness that ringed it. "I'll fight you if I need to."

Theodore sighed. "I'll give you a minute to say your goodbyes."

The tears hadn't stopped, and they didn't look like they would anytime soon. She was nearly suffocating me, but she looked so sad, I couldn't bare to make her stop. If these were my last moments, they weren't so bad. I barked, licking her face.

"He asks that you call him a good boy."

She shook her head, unwilling to hear anything the man was saying. Minako was crying so hard now, that it seemed like the words would never come out. She was hiccuping, her whole body shaking. "You're.. ***hic***..You're... You're a good boy, Koromaru. ***hic*** Oh god. Koromoru,you're the best friend anyone could ask for. ***hic*** I'm so sorry. I love you. I'm so ***hic*** so sorry."

I licked her face one more time for good measure. _I love you too. All of you._

* * *

April 1st 2010 12:01AM Minako

It was instant, almost like breathing. One moment my arms were wrapped around his soft fur, and the next he was gone. I put my hands on the floor to steady myself. Worn, tan carpet. I was in the dorm again.

"Mina...?"

Eight pairs of eyes stared at me in wonder, but it was Shinji's that caught my attention. "Mina..." He ran toward me and the rest followed. I reached up to wrap my arms around him, burying my face and all my sorrow into his chest. He was warm, and familiar. For a brief moment I forgot my grief.

"Mina...You're back." I could feel him sinking to his knees to match me, his tears mingling with my hair. "You're back..."

"No..." I whispered in answer. Pushing myself away from him, I curled into a small ball on the floor. "Koromaru...Koromaru took my place."

Everyone was silent for a moment, but then the shock registered, and the tears wouldn't stop.

Koromaru was gone. I couldn't protect him.


End file.
